New consultation on Copland/Ujima House redevelopment February 13th & 16th

There will be another consultation about the plans for the former Copland School and Ujima House sites on Wembley High Road.  The site of the former Copland School is very extensive and it will be a significant development not far from the 'Twin Towers' currently being built on the Chesterfield House site on the corner of Park Lane and next to the Brent House development.

Our report on the October 2018 consultation is HERE

The consultation by the PR agency 'Your Shout' who consulted on the South Kilburn development LINK will be on Wednesday 13th February 4pm-8pm and Saturday 16th February 10am-2pm at the SEIDs Hub-Community Centre, Empire Way, Wembley HA9 ORJ. LINK

Your Shout: Freephone 0800 955 1042
Email: WembleyHighRoad@yourshout.org

Tell Wembley Matters what you think about the Copland School & Ujima House redevelopment

I was unable to attend Saturday's consultation on the Copland School and Ujima House redevelopments as i was at the Green Party Conference but I expect attendance was not great because of the Wembley Stadium Event on the same day.

I went along on Thursday and there seemed to be better attendance from Brent councillors and the developer's PR team than the general public.

This video, taken from the upper floors of Ujima House, shows the current state of the Copland School site with demolition almost complete and demonstrates the size of the site. The new building of Ark Elvin Academy (successor to Copland) can be seen behind the site. The enormous black cube is the Ark Elvin Sports Hall.

This video shows the buildings on the Wembley High Road between Park Lane and Wembley Triangle. On the left of the screen is the Twin Towers building that is currently under construction and behind them to the right are Hub's planned two new tower blocks beside the railway line. At the centre on the other side of the road is the building on the Copland site which is much closer to the road that the schoolwas. Copland had some green space there and mature trees. Neither are shown on the model which was a matter of concern for residents on Thursday. There appeared to be space for a few saplings.

The building replacing Copland has some internal open space which developers said the public could access and the two new towers behind Chesterfield House have a green walk. The impression is given of many trees but these will clearly take a long time to grow into anything substantial.

As this is a Brent Council development I asked about the amount of truly affordable housing in the development (ie London Living Rent rather than 80% of market rent) but was told this was still to be decided - things are at an early stage.

I would welcome comments from those who went to the consultation and those who didn't about these proposals and so will the developers: 


These are the exhibition boards. Click on bottom right corner to enlarge to full size.

Have your say on Copland/Ujima House redevelopment Oct 4th and 6th

Locals will be aware that the demolition of the old Copland High School building is in progress. Brent Council is holding a public consultation at Ujima House 388 Wembley High Road on October 4th (4pm-7.30pm)  and 6th (10am - 2pm).

Ujima House

Copland High School

According to the council the consultation is about the proposed redevelopment of Ujima House and the former Copland buudling and improvements to the public realm along Wembley High Road.

The council has been working with Karakusevic Carson Architects and Easy to develp ideas for the redevelopment if the sites, including new community facilities, workspace and new homes.

Residents will be able to meet council officers and the architects and give their views on the High Road and the design proposals to date, ideas for uses of the community spaces and feedback on proposed new play facilities and public realm improvements.

Brent Council cancels joint venture with HUB for 'commercial reasons'

From Inside Housing LINK

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Brent Council has cancelled a development vehicle it had proposed to form with developer Hub for “commercial reasons”.

A report to be submitted to the council next week LINK notes that the joint venture “is not proceeding at this time” and that the council as a result is focusing on a smaller housing programme in Wembley.

Brent had been in negotiations with Hub over forming a joint venture or a development vehicle aimed at delivering 651 homes, 215 of which would be affordable.

The proposal was to transfer both council land and land owned by Hub into the vehicle. Part of the point of the vehicle was to use it to purchase Network Rail land, as homes built on land sold directly to councils don’t count towards Network Rail’s quotas.

The cabinet voted in June last year to endorse the proposal, with full details to be decided in a following meeting.

It now intends to continue with a smaller development programme on the other, non-Network Rail sites.

The council also provided seed funding of £1.6m to the project, aiming to secure £8m of grant funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA) for land acquisition.

One of the sites to be funded with GLA money, Ujima House, was purchased in June last year after the approval of the plans. 

Inside Housing has asked Brent Council about its alternative plans for funding this purchase.

UPDATE: Should the Council reveal more about proposed Ujima House acquisition?

Ujima House, recently taken off the market by vendors

 

Plan of the present site

Monday's Brent Cabinet is due to approve the purchase of Ujima House on Wembley High Road, as one of a number of acquisitions to implement the Wembley Housing Zone. No details are available as yet for their plans for the site although a high rise development, in the light of the Twin Towers, seems possible.

The report LINK states:

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The Wembley Housing Zone was designated by the GLA last year with the aim to accelerate housing and affordable housing development and to promote regeneration. In July 2015 Cabinet approved the approach which is to bring forward a programme of acquisition and development of a number of sites between Wembley town centre and the regeneration underway on the Stadium lands, including the council-owned site due to be released through the construction of the new Ark Elvin Academy. Cabinet also approved entering into a legal agreement with the GLA to secure their funding support and this has been concluded. 


Discussions are underway with the owners of a number of identified sites in order to establish the development programme. This report seeks the approval of Cabinet to the terms for the acquisition of a first of these identified sites, that of Ujima House and its car park in order to progress the implementation of the Wembley Housing Zone and agreement to enter into a contract with the Greater London Authority to fund the acquisition of the property. 


 Importantly officers say that redevelopment will be in the form of a partnership with the Council:

--> The Ujima site is suitable for development on its own but discussions are continuing with neighbouring land-owners and if these are successful it is intended that this site would form part of a larger programme of redevelopment. It is expected that this programme will be taken forward by the council in partnership with a development partner and a further report will be made to Cabinet on the proposed delivery approach and the selection of the development partner Details regarding the financial aspects of the deal are not available to the public. The Council, as usual cites Para 3, Part 1, Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 claiming that the public interest in disclosing the information is out-weighed by the public interest in disclosing it.

By Virtue of Paragraph 3 

Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

Condition:

Information is not exempt if it is required to be registered under-

• The Companies Act 1985
• The Friendly Societies Act 1974
• The Friendly Societies Act 1992
• The Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 to 1978
• The Building Societies Act 1986 (recorded in the public file of any building society, within the meaning of the Act)
• The Charities Act 1993

Information is exempt to the extent that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

However the Act goes on to state:

Information is not exempt if it relates to proposed development for which the local planning authority may grant itself planning permission pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Town & Country Planning General Regulations 1992(a).

 If the Council is going to act as a redevelopment partner surely the above caveat applies? I asked Brent Council and got this reponse:

The qualification you refer to applies only when the council is exercising its planning functions, i.e. when it is acting in its capacity as local planning authority and deciding whether or not to grant itself planning permission. Whereas the purpose of Cabinet report you refer to is to seek approval to enter into a contract to purchase land. If the purchase is approved and an application for planning permission is submitted, it will of course be dealt with by the Planning Committee as an entirely separate matter and in accordance with planning law and policy and the information access rules you refer to.